Drummer admits 'I used to love smoking weed and I thought I'd be able to do it for the rest of my life'

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has spoken about his decision to stop smoking marijuana and has revealed he did so after he discovered he had six stomach ulcers in May of this year.

The pop-punk trio were forced to cancel a series of shows in May when Barker was diagnosed with Barrett’s esophagus and was taken to hospital for an emergency tonsillectomy.

Barrett’s esophagus is a disorder in which the lining of the esophagus (the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach) is damaged by stomach acid and can cause serious damage to your digestive system.

Speaking to Red Bulletin, Barker said that after the operation he’s been forced to give up smoking marijuana, which he’d hoped “to do for the rest of my life”.

Speaking about his health scare, Barker said: “They found that I had six ulcers, and I had a condition called Barrett’s esophagus, which is basically from really extreme acid reflux or if you excessively smoked, your esophagus lining becomes pre-cancerous. Right then and there, I changed my whole life around. I had to stop eating and drinking certain things. And I had this lump in my throat around the same time. My tonsils were three to four times the size they should have been.”

He continued: “I used to love smoking weed. I would smoke weed at night if I had anxiety. I always thought I’d be able to do that for the rest of my life, but when your health is on the line, you don’t mess around. I love being a dad and I love playing music. I’m not trying to give up any of that.”

Barker also recently admitted that he will be forced to sit out Blink-182’s planned tour of Australia next year as the prospect of 24-hour long flight to Australia is too much for him at the moment. He was badly injured in a 2008 plane crash that claimed the lives of four people.

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Blink-182 will return to the UK for three intimate shows later this month. The trio first headline Manchester’s O2 Apollo on July 24 and then play London’s O2 Academy Brixton on July 25 and 26.

Earlier this year, the band revealed they’re already working on the follow-up to the album, with frontman Mark Hoppus stating he’d been writing new songs while Tom DeLonge has been out on the road with his side-project Angels And Airwaves.
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